'Having Our Say' project lets middle school students speak out

Most middle school students like using computers for video games and music, but as researchers at the College of Education's William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation discovered, students would also like to use these types of technologies in the classroom.

The 'Having Our Say' project, which examined middle school students' perspectives on classroom teaching methods, was completed this spring and results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago on April 13.

Led by Dr. Hiller Spires, College of Education professor and senior research fellow at the Friday Institute, researchers wanted to understand what skills and tools students believe they need in order to be successful and academically engaged in school. "As North Carolina prepares students for work and life in the modern world, students need to be actively engaged in the design of their schools and learning environments," Spires said.

The team analyzed survey data from 4,000 middle school students (from sixth, seventh and eighth grades) from across North Carolina and held small, follow-up focus groups. Students ranked using computers in general and doing research on the Internet as the school activities they liked best and listening to teachers explain subject matter and doing worksheets as activities they liked least.

The majority (75 to 90 percent) reported that they possess basic word processing and spreadsheet skills, and that most of these skills were learned at school. For skills related to activities outside of school, students classified themselves as high frequency users of listening to music (83 percent), playing video games (76 percent), and using cell phones (71 percent). Using computers was the one activity that all ethnicities stated they liked best in school. Despite the fact that a high percentage of the students were receiving free-or-reduced lunches at school, they had access to the Internet and cell phones outside of school.

"We thought it was important to hear students' voices in terms of what they need to be engaged and inspired to achieve in school," said John Lee, associate professor in middle grades education.

The majority of students noted that they use a variety of technologies outside of school, and they would like to be able to use these tools in school. These students expressed a concern that sometimes it appeared that teachers did not understand that technology is a big part of students' lives outside of school.

"We found that students want to be engaged and stimulated in school," Kim Turner, doctoral research assistant, said. "Students expressed a vision for using what they deem as 'everyday technologies,' not only in the classroom for academic engagement, but for preparation for future jobs."

"Students clearly want to bring technology experiences that they have as part of a social network outside of school into school and apply it to the learning process as a way to increase academic engagement," Lee noted. "Demonstrating a sophisticated sense of what is needed to be successful in society, they voiced concerns about their schools not being up-to-date in terms of facilities, technologies and curricula."

"These students will create our future," North Carolina Business Committee for Education Executive Director Tricia Willoughby said. "We need to listen to them and use the tools and realities of their world to ensure that they stay engaged in the education process."

Knowledge gained through the project can have a lasting impact, Spires noted.

"If we make student's perspectives a regular part of the educational dialogue, especially when it comes to quickly changing technologies, we may create a more innovative and responsive school experience," she said. "Our goal is for this work to be informative to educators and policy makers as we create an educational system that can evolve with the times, and keep our students competitive in a changing global economy."

For more information, visit http://www.fi.ncsu.edu/projects/havingoursay/ .